My Little Village will reduce ~70% of childcare cost

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Create a "Childcare Social Network". Parents with similar values form their Little Village and take turns to care for the children. Parents work 4 days/wk (80% income) to avoid childcare cost $52k/y. A 70% cost reduction to an average income earner.

Who will care the most for your child? Naturally, YOU - the parents.

We can create a childcare social network with the current technology. Parents create account and profile including their values and location. Compatible parents, friends or relatives come together to form their own "little village" where they take turns to care for one another's child and avoid the need of using a childcare centre.

For example, 5 parents with similar values form a little village; each parent reduces work schedule to 4 days/week and receives 80% of normal income. Parent #1 has an off day on Monday to take care of all children from all 5 parents. Parent #2 has an off day on Tuesday and so on. Thus, all parents will avoid the need of using a childcare centre.

The average annual income of Australian is around $80k (source: Bureau of Statistics). My Little Village idea will cause 20% loss of income, which comes to $16k/yr to save the cost of childcare of $52k/yr. The net saving is $36k/yr, which is approximately 70% cost reduction!

The ratio for carer-to-children will improve. In the example above, my little village will have 1 parent care for 5 children (1:5). The staff to child ratio at childcare centre vary greatly according to age group and level of service/cost involved, typically ranging from 1:5 (infants) to 1:25 (6+ years old children).

The quality of childcare will improve because the parent is the caregiver. The challenge of accessibility, availability and logistics will naturally be resolved for home-based childcare.

My Little Village idea requires the following investment:

1) Creating a social network so that compatible parents can get together to form their own little village.

2) Providing support services to teach parents how to provide high-quality care to children in all aspects of health & wellbeing, cognitive, emotional and social development.

3) Monitoring progress by having qualified professional to inspect the little villages from time to time to ensure parents are providing high-quality care to children.